‘Don’t come to a beefeating club if you’re vegetarian’

Matthew d'Ancona & David Rennie

05 July 2006

And here’s the rub for Mr Barroso. He is blunt that if Britain wants to fight for free trade inside Europe, it will have to allow the Commission to lead the fight, as a supranational regulator, with the power to beat back protectionist national governments.

‘Without the Commission, you could not fight the current trend of national protectionism going on in Europe. And now I can talk from very concrete experience. If we leave this only to the member states, inter-governmentally, you end up with agreements such as — “OK, you can do this, if you let me do this.” That’s why we need strong institutions, not because of a kind of theological superstate in Europe.’

No less controversially, he insists that, having pushed for EU enlargement, Britain must now give up its instinctive attachment to unanimous decision-making, and accept more majority voting. ‘I believe,’ he says, ‘the rules that exist in the constitutional treaty are basically good, a good compromise.’

Not for the French and the Dutch, who rejected them resoundingly last summer, of course. But for the unabashed president this is a direct quid pro quo as the EU enlarges. ‘It’s obvious, if you want things to work. It’s impossible to be in a club that is so enlarged, and wish for every step [to be endorsed by] a unanimous decision.’

Mr Barroso began his political career as an 18-year-old Maoist student, burning the car of his university rector during the dying days of the Portuguese dictatorship. These days, his politics is that of the club rather than the revolutionary caucus. He appears to see Europe not as a fledgling superstate but as a club of leaders, in which clever, urbane politicians — like his friend Douglas Hurd — achieve their goals with skill and discretion.

He enjoys an easy rapport with Mr Blair — they speak often on the telephone, and Barroso has dined privately with the Blair family on visits to Britain. They are of the same generation, and both have school-age children. Politically, the two men also have in common a faith — mysterious to those who do not share it — that the EU is indeed capable of greater labour market flexibility, and that support for the EU is fully compatible with Atlanticism.